High-profile assignments are nothing new for Kris Malkoski, but her latest ranks as the toughest.

Ms. Malkoski, 36, was promoted in September to category general manager for new-business development at Procter & Gamble Co.'s over-the-counter healthcare business, a sector with great expectations but disappointing results.

Chairman-CEO John Pepper has predicted healthcare products will account for up to 20% of corporate sales by 2005. But sales were down 2% last year and languish at around 8% of the corporate total. Ms. Malkoski's job is to develop products that can turn around those numbers.

SOARED VIA PERT PLUS

She already has helped deliver key successes at P&G, which she joined in 1983 after graduating summa cum laude in journalism from the University of Nebraska. In 1986, she became brand manager for then-new Pert Plus, which became one of P&G's most successful domestic and global brands.

She was marketing director for new-business development in analgesics when P&G launched Aleve in 1994, setting a category record by claiming a 7.6% market share its first year. Ultimately, Aleve's share eroded and P&G sold the brand to venture partner Hoffman-La Roche Syntex Healthcare.

Ms. Malkoski was soon promoted and became a member of P&G's 100-member operations committee, which mostly includes vice presidents, though she isn't

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Jack Neff

Jack Neff, editor at large, covers household and personal-care marketers, Walmart and market research. He's based near Cincinnati and has previously written for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Bloomberg, and trade publications covering the food, woodworking and graphic design industries and worked in corporate communications for the E.W. Scripps Co.